My only experience with Elizabethan Modern English in the school system was through on-and-off study of Shakespeare in English class; mostly Romeo and Juliette and then doing Caesar once.
Otherwise I read Dante’s Inferno on my own, though that isn’t really an English composition originally as it was Italian.
@Background Pony #CE8B
Hate to break it to you, but yes, early modern english is indeed a difficult thing for most people. Schools don’t even teach this stuff, at least not by my experience. I’m American-born with fairly good mastery of the English language and I can’t even attempt to write anywhere near the way Pencils did. If I were to write this comic, I would either have to do a lot of googling or get assistance from a historian or linguist.
@Pencils
OMG, that’s AWESOME! Jean Sibelius is my favorite composer, and through his work I learned about, and have come to respect, the long and bloody history of the Finns.
@The CLaUD
No, that would clearly be a very minor CK-Class-Restructuring-Scenario; civilization would still persist, but society would be radically different, similar to what would happen if someone were to write in SCP-140.
Sigh. Why is Early Modern English so hard for people?
“Thou knowest” not “Thee know.”
Because I never studied or researched it, that’s why. I am also Finnish so chances of my exposure are even lesser. However, thank you for the correction. In the future if you have correction suggestions, feel free to do them, I welcome all language fixes.
I see. Well, I only noticed with Igneous’ dialogue, so I suppose your English is actually very good in general.
The root of the problem is that current English has merged the 2nd person plural and singular into “you” (though of course they are separating again into “you” and “y’all” in some dialects). It used to be that multiple persons were “you” and a single person was “thou”, but people started calling single persons “you” to express politeness and it just got out of hand. Some religious groups (formerly including Quakers, though they have since abandoned the practice for the most part), especially those associated with “plain living”, disliked this practice and retained “thou” longer. The stereotype of a rustic traditionalist calling people “thou” has persisted long after the general population forgot what it meant.
A further complication is that people read “thou” in old Bible quotations referring to God, and somehow imagine that it is a “more formal” alternative to “you”. This is actually completely backwards relative to historical usage, when for a while - when it was polite to call an individual person “you” but people still remembered what “thou” meant - you could insult people by calling them “thou” in certain contexts, as in:
“I thou thee, thou traitor!” (Meaning “I refer to you by an inappropriately informal pronoun, because you are a traitor.”)
@Dirty Bit
Are you mad man!? If those two were to ever come into direct contact, it’d create an unstoppable event-horizon. Were talking xk-class-end-of-the-world-scenario level stuff here!!!
Don’t even joke man.
@Dirty Bit
Are you mad man!? If those two were to ever come into direct contact, it’d create an unstoppable event-horizon. Were talking xk-class-end-of-the-world-scenario level stuff here!!!
Don’t even joke man.
@Background Pony #AA6D
Thank you.
“In thy absence our homestead received visitors, Limestone.”
“I… uh… see. I have faith thou know’st what is for th’ good. Thus hath thy disposition taught me.”
“I part from thee to tend what must be tended to and inform Mother of th’ new addition of helping hooves.”
… The help she’s got? John Belushi.
My only experience with Elizabethan Modern English in the school system was through on-and-off study of Shakespeare in English class; mostly Romeo and Juliette and then doing Caesar once.
Otherwise I read Dante’s Inferno on my own, though that isn’t really an English composition originally as it was Italian.
Hate to break it to you, but yes, early modern english is indeed a difficult thing for most people. Schools don’t even teach this stuff, at least not by my experience. I’m American-born with fairly good mastery of the English language and I can’t even attempt to write anywhere near the way Pencils did. If I were to write this comic, I would either have to do a lot of googling or get assistance from a historian or linguist.
OMG, that’s AWESOME! Jean Sibelius is my favorite composer, and through his work I learned about, and have come to respect, the long and bloody history of the Finns.
Finland, arise; your golden dawn has come!
No, that would clearly be a very minor CK-Class-Restructuring-Scenario; civilization would still persist, but society would be radically different, similar to what would happen if someone were to write in SCP-140.
I see. Well, I only noticed with Igneous’ dialogue, so I suppose your English is actually very good in general.
The root of the problem is that current English has merged the 2nd person plural and singular into “you” (though of course they are separating again into “you” and “y’all” in some dialects). It used to be that multiple persons were “you” and a single person was “thou”, but people started calling single persons “you” to express politeness and it just got out of hand. Some religious groups (formerly including Quakers, though they have since abandoned the practice for the most part), especially those associated with “plain living”, disliked this practice and retained “thou” longer. The stereotype of a rustic traditionalist calling people “thou” has persisted long after the general population forgot what it meant.
A further complication is that people read “thou” in old Bible quotations referring to God, and somehow imagine that it is a “more formal” alternative to “you”. This is actually completely backwards relative to historical usage, when for a while - when it was polite to call an individual person “you” but people still remembered what “thou” meant - you could insult people by calling them “thou” in certain contexts, as in:
“I thou thee, thou traitor!” (Meaning “I refer to you by an inappropriately informal pronoun, because you are a traitor.”)
Anyway, good luck with the comic.
The artist is Finnish so it’s not his first language.
Are you mad man!? If those two were to ever come into direct contact, it’d create an unstoppable event-horizon. Were talking xk-class-end-of-the-world-scenario level stuff here!!!
Don’t even joke man.
That FF6 reference.
HNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNG!!!!!!
Finland strikes again! Why are Finns so awesome? Seriously after my own countrymen, Finns are my favourite people. Wikipedia has a basic rundown on how to use thee, thou etc. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_Modern_English#Grammar
I wonder how Marble and Fluttershy will interact.